Shift’s Newsmaker Interview is with 44^th Legislative District Republican House candidate Mark Harmsworth, who is running against Democrat Representative Brandy Donaghy, the incumbent appointed earlier this year.  This race in Central Snohomish County is targeted by both parties as the Republicans seek to take control of the legislature this November.  Harmsworth served the 44^th District in the House from 2015 to 2019, after completing two terms on the Mill Creek City Council.  Recently Harmsworth has worked as the Center for Small Business Director for the Washington Policy Center and runs his own IT consulting company. Like many of his fellow GOP candidates, Harmsworth is highlighting public safety issues in his campaign after the Democrats’ 2021 anti-police legislation led to a significant rise in crime across Washington.  In his interview Harmsworth discusses making the state a more affordable place to live and work, repealing the Long-Term Care payroll tax, public safety, helping small businesses, and providing Shift readers with his very unique, yet worthy favorite book. (Click to read full Newsmaker Interview)

Filing for candidates ended at 4:00 PM today for what many believe will be an historic election this November.  You can view who has filed by visiting the Secretary of State webpage. (Note: for legislative races in districts that are confined to one county, you must select that county at the top of the page to see all candidates who have filed.) There are many interesting races developing this year, including one in the 5^th Legislative District (East King County) where former two-term (2013 – 2017) Republican State Representative Chad Magendanz is seeking to return to the legislature by taking on incumbent Democrat Representative Lisa Callan.  In a Facebook post, Magendanz said he had to leave his position as a computer science teacher in the Bellevue School District to run for office since the district won’t allow a leave of absence to either run for office or to serve in the legislature.  Magendanz said in the post he has accepted a job at Lindbergh High School in the Renton School District. (Secretary of State candidate filings and Chad Magendanz Facebook post)

Republican state lawmakers continue to call for a temporary suspension of the state’s gas tax as the price of fuel is now averaging more than $5 a gallon.  According to AAA, the average price of unleaded gas in Washington State is now $5.18 a gallon. Earlier this week Republican Senate Leader John Braun appealed to Governor Inslee and the Democrat legislative leadership to call a special session (which could be done online in just a couple of hours) to help lower- and middle- income workers by suspending the fuel tax through the end of the year.  Senator Braun said the state’s revenue forecast shows the state can easily afford to go without the revenue generated by the tax for the rest of this year, and suspending the tax would help many lower income families who are severely impacted by rising fuel costs.

Senator Braun asked his Democrat colleagues to be honest about why they have thus far refused to join their Republican colleagues to help many struggling families. “If our Democratic colleagues here in Washington are OK with the soaring gas prices because they see it as a way to get people out of their cars, I wish they’d come out and say so. If not, they should join with us to call a special session and suspend the gas tax with a strong bipartisan vote that could deter a veto.” (Longview Daily News and Senator John Braun statement)

The federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stated that it expects political violence this summer, including attacks on Supreme Court justices and members of Congress, following the expected decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Roe v. Wade abortion ruling.  In a DHS memo that was leaked to the media, federal officials stated they have “moderate confidence” that extremist activists on both sides of the issue are already planning violent demonstrations.

While we certainly hope that extremists will not follow through on their threats, we also wonder what the response will be from our state and local elected leaders and party organizations if political violence does occur. We certainly hope that both sides will follow the example of Washington State’s Republican leaders, who condemned the political violence committed by fringe Trump supporters on January 6, 2021, as it was taking place. We hope all elected officials will not copy what was done at all levels of Washington State’s elected Democrats, who not only refused to condemn the rampant political violence committed by liberal activists which took place in the summer of 2020 (including a mass murder attempt), but then caved into the demands of the rioters by passing state and local public safety laws which have made our state far less safe for its law-abiding citizens while making it far more comfortable for criminals.  And we definitely hope no politician will follow the example set by Governor Inslee when he said, “That’s news to me” while he embarrassingly ducked responding to questions about the violence on Seattle’s Capitol Hill which had made national headlines.

Now that candidate filings have come to a close, campaign season has officially begun.  It is fair for voters to start asking candidates on both sides if they will condemn ALL political violence, no matter who commit the acts. It is necessary for voters to know if candidates are consistent in supporting democratic principles or if they are hypocrites and only condemn violence for partisan advantage when committed by their political opponents. (Axios, Shift, KOMO News, and Rebecca Perry Twitter)

Evidently the public outrage over the Democrats’ soft-on-criminals actions have finally reached the ears of Governor Inslee (or the staff guiding him), as today he overturned the decision of a board he appointed granting a triple murderer parole. Previously, the members of Washington State Indeterminate Sentence Review Board (who were appointed by the governor) granted parole for Timothy Pauley, who killed three individuals while committing the robbery of a SeaTac bar in 1980. Former Republican Congressman Dave Reichert, who was a detective on the case, had organized a meeting with the victims’ families and Governor Inslee so they could make their argument to overturn the decision. Reichert said he asked the governor to demonstrate “the courage to do what is right.” (KOMO News and KING5 News)

A Centralia Police Department officer suffered a concussion on Wednesday after being thrown to the ground by a repeat criminal who was caught attempting to use a stolen identity to “purchase” a car.  The suspect, who also had an outstanding $55,000 warrant in King County, landed on top of Officer Julie Jacobo’s head during a scuffle as he attempted to escape.  He was later arrested by other Centralia officers, where they found “a large quantity of suspected methamphetamine” in his car, which the subject had previously bought using fake identification. This is yet another example of the increased willingness of suspects to flee police detention which many Washington State law enforcement officers have experienced since the passage of the Democrats’ anti-police package in 2021 and the Democrat legislators refusal to fix the part of the legislation allowing criminals to flee pursuit during the 2022 legislative session (as they had promised).  (Centralia Chronicle)

One of the millions of Washington State residents who would benefit from a temporary removal of the state gas tax is a Yakima leukemia patient who must travel to Seattle once a week for treatments. Kenneth Leach said the weekly trips now cost him about $120 in gas for each trip, and this is $30 more than what it cost him just a year ago.  Leach said that he and his family have almost gone through his retirement savings due to the cost of gas and inflation. “And then with gas going up, the price of food, the price of everything goes up, so it’s just that much more expensive,” Leach said.  The television news station who reported on Leach’s situation said it contacted Governor Inslee’s office to see if there was something he could do to help.  Thus far, there has been no response from the governor’s office. (YakTriNews)

Babylon Bee Friday

Conservative Satire to start the weekend

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